8 New Quizzes Posted

I was bored.

Well, I guess I basically fixed Aunt Ann's computer

Mom called her, and got a list of what was wrong:

1) The A:\ drive, which they had recently installed, wasn't working.

2) They installed a CD Burner, and their old CD drive was no longer working.

3) They couldn't install Roadrunner.

I don't see the problem here. I mean, most software lately comes out on CD, and files worth sharing can either be emailed or are too large for a floppy. But whatever. Secondly, I'll bet the Burner can read faster than their old drive, by simple viture of being newer, so what's the big deal there? Finally, I don't know anything about Roadrunner, and troubleshooting software you've never used without it there is.... difficult?

So I put a disk in the A:\ drive, and it reads it just fine. Problem solved.

I can't find any reference or anything to the CD drive that isn't working in the Device Manager or anywhere, so I check the physical connection. There isn't one. Whoever installed the burner just connected it, but didn't connect the old one. Nice. So I moved the primary connector to the older drive (it's on top), and the secondary one to the burner. Booted, and it read both fine. Problem solved.

Man, one of these days, I'll work on *actual* computer problems, not connecting CD drives that aren't connected and running a spyware/adware scanner.

Posts to come:
*Work
*DDR last night

Orientation: Summary

Had orientation yesterday, so I guess I'm officially a bobcat now. Rawr. I also registered for classes. Apparently, I'm one class away from a math minor, and after this semester, I'll have to take two sciences, 2 PE classes, and that's it. Oh yeah, and a shitload of CS courses. So that's fun. This semester (or next, I guess, since I'm talking about fall 2004), I'm taking a cs course (they teach theirs in C++, so I have a month to learn it), Discrete I, Stat/Prob, Chem I, and Music - intro to Fine Arts.

Fun stuff.

More later; now, I have to get ready for a 12 hour shift at work, 'cause Dave's an ass.

Transformers: Good Game, Terrible Ending

So I finally beat Transformers. Got all the mini-cons and data-cons (although it was only on the easiest difficulty setting, so there's some I can't even find, as in, they're not there yet). The last boss is Unicron, except a little pussy watered-down Unicron that the Unicron from the movie could rip in two with a thought. You get the "ultimate" Mini-cons - as far as I could tell, you got one that let you fly around, and a gun that shoot out a bunch of glitter. Then, in a bizarre cross between Independence Day and Anal Sluts 9, you fly up into Unicron as he's attacking Cybertron and shot him with the glitter gun.

Yeah.

The ending was... lame. Unicron is destroyed, uttering the same lines he does in the movie, except it's not Orson Welles doing them. Then all the minicons fall to Cybertron, and our three heroes come out, triumphant. They're cheered, and a giant neon billboard lights up with the Cybertron logo.

Cue credits.

Then we go back to Cybertron for more cheering, and Optimus Prime steals another movie quote, "Until the day, when all are one."

There's a lot of that. "Unicron must be stopped, no matter the cost." is a variation of "Megatron must be stopped... no matter the cost" before Optimus rips apart the attacking Decepticons at Autobot City.

I'm not going to keep the game to beat it on the higher difficulty settings. I don't really see a point - bragging rights? a handful more minicons? Whoop-de freaking do. There're only two good unlocks anyway - TV spots (PSAs) featuring G1 Transformers, and CG movies from the game.

I really didn't care for a lot about this game, but it mainly has to do with the evolution of the transformers. They seem... younger. Starscream, especially. He reminds me of some little teenage punk who's got an axe to grind with the world.

New Site Feature: Quizzes

'Cause I'm a geek, and a bored person with insomnia who's often up at 4 am.  Deal with it.  See the sidebar for details.

I gave my speech Monday, and didn't die in the process

I ended up doing it on speech deprivation. Here's my outline:

Specific Purpose: To introduce the audience to the causes, effects, and dangers of sleep deprivation. I. Introduction A. Attention Device ? Poll audience on levels of daytime drowsiness; compare to national average B. Define sleep deprivation C. Thesis II. Causes of Sleep Deprivation A. Time constraints B. Habits formed in high school C. Late/long shifts D. Sleep disorders 1. Insomnia (14%) 2. Sleep apnea (24% males, 9% females) 3. Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) 4. ?Restless Legs? E. Various physical, physiological factors III. Effects of Sleep Deprivation A. Brain activity shits - Increased activity in Prefrontal cortext, parietal region, decrease in temporal lobe; diminished ability to perform cognitive and arithmetic tasks B. Sleep debt (biological clock, transient external stimuli) C. Drowsiness, often mis-attributed D. Various minor effects ? tiredness, irritability, inability to tolerate stress, problems concentrating, remembering, behavioral learning, social problems, vague discomfort IV. Dangers of Sleep Deprivation A. Low grades B. Correlations with other afflictions C. Driving V. Conclusion A. Summary B. Reemphasize of Thesis C. Share personal experience D. End

and my bibliography:

Carpenter, Siri. ?Sleep deprivation may be undermining teen health.? Monitor on Psychology: A Publication of the American Psychology Association. Volume 32, No. 9, October 2001. Available: http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct01/sleepteen.html ?Sleep deprivation as bad as alcohol impairment, study suggests.? CNN.com: Health. September 20, 2000. Available: http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/09/20/sleep.deprivation/ Drummond, Sean; Stricker, John; Burton, Richard. ?Brain Activity is Visibly Altered Following Sleep Deprivation.? UCSD Heathbeat: News from Health Sciences Communications. UCSD Healthcare, UCSD School of Medicine. February 9, 2000. Available: http://health.ucsd.edu/news/2000_02_09_Sleep.html Dement, William. ?Sleepless at Stanford: What All Undergraduates Should Know About How Their Sleeping Lives Affect Their Waking Ones.? Stanford University Center of Excellence for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Sleeping Disorders. Stanford University. September, 1997. Available: http://www.stanford.edu/%7Edement/sleepless.html Kloeppel, Esther; Peters, Robert; and others. ?Effects of Partial and Total Sleep Deprivation on Driving Performance.? Human Factors. Federal Highway Administration, Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center. Publication No. FHWA-RD-94-046. Available: http://www.tfhrc.gov/humanfac/sleep/sleepweb.htm ?Sleep Deprivation?. Postgraduate Medicine Online. Vol 112, No 4, October 2002. Available: http://www.postgradmed.com/issues/2002/10_02/pn_sleep.htm

It went okay. I wore my new dark green pants and a new t-shirt - it's oatmeal colored, maybe a little darker. And very, very soft. The only downside is that it shows sweat with great contrast. I didn't sweat that bad, but definitely a little.

I went third, after an older housewife looking lady that talked (very quietly) about addiction, and a girl named Tasha talked about obesity. Then, all too soon, it was my turn.

I gave Karl my outline and bibliography, then went up to the front of the class and began. I had a few problems at first, mostly related to breathing (I wasn't, and almost hyperventilated). A few times, I just had to stop and take a deep breath. But it went okay after that. I went past time just barely, but did manage to get the story about driving to North Carolina out. I think it went okay overall.

Now, as for the rest of the class:

Topics varied. From what I can remember: Two on obesity, (one): DUIs, beer, why to be a nurse, the nursing shortage, the teaching shortage, dance team, cheerleading/power tumbling, kayaking, nanotechnology; that's all I can remember right now.

The dance team chick was *hilarious* - she just kinda stood there and made a lot of non-verbal utterances, and kinda talked about being on dance team. The cheerleader was a little better - she did a back handspring. And she had a chart. It was about the number of emergency room visits due to cheerleading accidents. She also had a circle graph that showed 53% of all injuries in college sustained by females in sports happen in cheerleading (but failed to provide a correlation with how many participate in cheerleading vs other sports). They both lacked real organization.

The nanotechnology guy pissed me off. First, nanotechnology is a poor topic for a 4-6 minute speech, since you can't go into any depth, and this is a subject that is hard to just skim for an audience of laypeople. He used a lot of buzzwords but didn't really define or put them into context; he sounded like a brochure or magazine article at times. He also threw out a few names of key scientist in the field, but didn't really say much about them. It was also clear he had his speech completely laid out - not extemporaneous.  A lot of his transitions were clearly memorized, which while not an entirely bad thing, isn't great if it's horrendously obvious.  The really funny part was when he was about finished with his introduction (including a bizarre method of defining nano), he realized his speech was going to run long, and he took off.  He was speaking very, very quickly, and basically just reading from his notecards, looking up only occasionally.  In general, he's just a really cocky, arrogant guy who thinks he's better and smarter than everyone else.  (I do too, but I don't go to lengths to show it).  His intro speech was a major non sequiter, but another idea along those same lines.  After his speech, I heard the cheerleader whisper to the older woman (mid 20's, early 30's?) in front of me, "I didn't understand any of that."  Which really pissed me off -that was exactly the reaction he was going for, and it was entirely uncalled for.  I mean, it sounded like an article in Popular Science or something.

Anyway.

The chocolate chip cookie guy was really cool.  He has a number of piercings and tatoos, so it was an interesting way for him to break the stereotype.  He's a really friendly, open guy, and makes GREAT cookies.

Those are the ones that really stuck out in my mind.  We have to do our persuasive speeches a week from tomorrow.  I actually ended up choosing my topic about 3:30 (sleep deprivation), then immediately fell asleep.  I didn't really do anything on my speech until 2 or 3 pm.  Janelle and I went to the dentist at 8.  That was not pleasent.  My oral hygiene hasn't been too great lately, and it hurt.  We got back by 10 or so, but I didn't start for a few hours.  I really just googled, then hit up all the links on the first site I went to.  I only had a few practice run-throughs, but it went okay.

I went to Matt & Luke's afterwards, and we played my campaign 'til about 2 or 3 (pictures posted previously).  Mom woke me up at 7:30, so I could go to the manager meeting at 9:30 and talk to Dave about becoming an assistant.  I wisely decided to just sleep instead, but Javi doesn't think I blew my only chance.

I've got orientation in the morning, then class again tomorrow night.  Only 4 (I think) more classes to go!

D&D Pictures: 7/27/04

So we finally started playing my campaign again, after I finished class last night. Here we see Matt going through his character sheet, remembering what his character has. Brett's, well, probably doing Brett stuff.	Luke and Michael doing the same thing.
Brett.	Lorm sold several items, among them a +1/+1 Orc Double Axe and his mithril ore, and recieved a large quantity of gold pieces. Here he is, pulling his bag of gold around.
The pencils outline the blacksmith's shop owned by the blacksmith Michael was checking out. They sent in Zhao Fei to try to gather information, while Davin and his wolf hung out outside in case trouble erupted (What? Trouble spontaneously erupt? Never!) And Lorm and Nadine just hung out in the marketplace, trying to look inconspicuous. Zhao Fei succeeded in convincing the Master (as he would be called) that he was a darkfriend, and he took him into his office to discuss obtaining a "special" weapon.	Brett and his asperi, represented by a unicorn mini, 'cause that's just cool.
Another angle.	It's half an hour until dusk. The master and his two apprentices were getting ready to close up shop, while...
most of the party (minus the Zhao boys) sat at a bistro across the street, trying to look nonchalant.	Zhao Fei was a potion store just down the street.
The party begins to move in.	A fight breaks out, the master summons some orcs, and a giant melee ensues.
The black beads are dead orcs. Oh, the master cast a spell that turned him into, well, basically a giant dark energy elemental. That's fun.	Overhead shot of the final few rounds.
After they kill him, his two apprentices finally come around the corner.	Davin runs up and takes one out,
while Zhao Fei finishes off the other one.	Then Davin and Zhao Fei check out the master's office; they're attacked by an animated skeleton.
Another angle.	A demon head raises out of the giant pool of blood, and talks to Davin (posing as the master). He gathers a great deal of information with key relevance to the plot, then there's a huge arguement and everyone leaves to go to the temple of Aurora, for various reasons.

Well...

I talked to Dave a second ago. Not about the manager thing - neither of us brought it up. I don't know if, by missing the meeting, I communicated either a lack of interest and/or dependability and missed my only chance, or what.

But:

I did talk to him about Joel working my shift tomorrow; he resisted, but eventually, we came up with Joel'll work all day tomorrow, and I'll work all day Thursday, covering Joel's day shift (isn't he supposed to be a manager then, though? Or is Ray working as well?). Which is better than most of the alternatives, and I get to keep my 35+ hours this week. Nice.

Oh, that's Hot

Yeah, so the manager meeting was at 9:30 this morning.

I woke up about fifteen minutes ago.

Man, that's hilarious.

Edit: I forgot the best part. Mom woke me up at 7:30. I mean, I was awake - I went out and moved my truck. Then I wisely decided to go back to sleep instead of going to the manager's meeting.

That's Hot.

David gave me a great idea

So I'll be integrating my blog as the center of my new, redesigned website. There may be some dead links appearing on the sidebar for a while, but you'll just have to deal with them ;)

A few things to update (later):

• D&D game
  
• Speech / dentist appointment

It's 18 past Three

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Well, here we are, three hours later, and no closer to even choosing a topic. I'll just do some brainstorming...

It should be something I'm interested in, or knowledgable about.

DDR? That would be my first choice. But I don't think someone who doesn't already play DDR would be interested in hearing about it. That's the problem with most of my interests.

MST3K? Another good possibility, but how to organize it? A brief history? Function and form? Not gonna happen.

BE? No way.

Star Wars? Fantasy novels/settings/games? No.

Funny incident just happened, but it's going to dovetail into a much longer post, so I'll hold off on that (hint: Chelsea).

Ducks? I like ducks. Enough to do a speech about 'em? No.

Sleep deprivation? I think I'll do that. I'm fairly familiar with the effects, so be sure.

To quote Crystal Waters, "It's 12 past midnight"

Wow. How coincidental.

But I'm lying here, freaking out about my speech. I still don't have a topic for it. That's not really the problem - I can develop a 4 -6 minute speech, including outline and bibliography, in no time. I'm freaking out about delivering it. Just the fifteen - thirty second inpromptu speaking we had to do at the end of class last time was enough to leave me freaked out for several hours afterwards (and I get a sinking feeling in my groin just remembering it). I'm going to freak out the whole time - it'll be just like Horizons in sixth grade, except this time, I can't just go back to math class instead (and have the teacher come drag me back anyway).

Also, I found out tuition's due on August 5th, but my loan won't be disbursed until the 16th. So that's fun, I'll have to ask them about that at Orientation - assuming I'm able to go (contingent upon Dave allowing Joel to take my shift Wednesday).

Also, my right shoulder has this weird muscle soreness pain type sensation, between my shoulder and my neck. It's not major or anything, but it's good to have it piled up on everything else.

Current outstanding issues:

• Wednesday shift covered?
  
• Dentist appointment Monday morning
  
• Speech Monday evening
  
• Loan disbursement date vs Tuition due date
  

B5 game: 7/25/04

These are the two screen captures from our most recent game of B5 on gEngine. The setup was as follows:

Me (jackalope): Human PC Psi/Intrigue
Tim (BOT): Minbari Steal Babylon 4
Nov (Novelty): Human Replacement / Destiny

There were some fairly slow periods, but things definitely came to a head at the end, with the final score being 20 (nov) - 17 (me) - 14 (tim).

On a completely unrelated note, my profile views jumped from 32 to 74. Damn.

New Feature

I finally got around to digging around in my Blog template and adding a small links section. It's just a few of my favorite sites. I'm still deciding whether or not they should open up in a new window or not. Currently, they don't.

It's amazing the things you accomplish when you're procrastinating on your speech that's due in approximately 21 hours.

Random Musings

Except I won't do much musing, and it's not really random.

Stayed up all night Thursday, then went in at 8 Friday. I was covering Rick's shift, 'cause he wasn't going to be there. Except he showed up at 8:20, so I went home, screwed around for a while, and came back at 10. Worked 10 - 5, but I was *incredibly* tired. I kept spacing out, which sucked. Ray even had to back me up, when he shouldn't have had to. But I came back, and even said, "Okay, I'm back" to Ray. Went okay after that, except I was extremely tired. I was planning on going home, chilling for a bit, then heading up to Austin for DDR and what-not. However, my body vetoed that decision, and enacted a new plan - go to sleep. I woke up about 9:30 or so. Late, but not too late to head up there anyway. So I did. Was out in probably fifteen minutes - showered, changed, and got my stuff ready. Stopped by Eskimo Joe's and picked up three 1.5 liter bottled waters. Good stuff.

Got to Blazer Tag... and there wasn't anyone there. I mean, there were people there, but not anyone that matters. I eventually saw Robyn, and she told me everyone had already come and gone. Darn. I don't know what's worse - that I went to play DDR with a bunch of 14 year-olds, or I that I was really sad that they weren't there. I stuck around and played a handful of games, all on Singles.

I left there and went to Le Fun. I think because I was still kinda tired and sore, I wasn't doing as well as usual. Still didn't pass Afronova Primeval. Played a handful of games, and came home. Didn't go to Katie and Rose's, for whatever reason.

While I was at work yesterday, I asked Dave when a good time to talk to him would be. He said there wasn't really one, but he knew what I wanted to talk to him about (becoming an assistant), and that I should come sit in on the Manager meeting Tuesday morning, and he'd talk to me after that. So that's good, I think. I know Javi and Rudy both support me becoming an assistant. I think I'll do okay.

Transformers

Penny Arcade is right:

Playing Transformers is, in fact, like having liquid hot joy inserted into your rectum. The CG scene where Tidal Wave transforms is amazing, and the subsequent boss fight is awesome. I'm about half-way through the game (maybe a little more) on the easiest difficulty setting. The mini-con aspect, annoying as it is in the show, actually makes for a decent game. I've had a lot of fun running through the gigantic levels, searching down the little buggers to give me new powers.

I think I'm going to talk to Dave today about becoming an assistant. I need to - Joel is leaving at the end of the month (or so), and Rudy'll be leaving before too long. Someone is going to have to step up, or we'll have an outsider to deal with. Might as well be me.

DDR tonight at Blazer Tag, and crashing at/with Rose's. Fun times.

I heard a great joke the other day

Yeah, so I heard Square of America isn't allowed to go to the bathroom without Square of Japan's permission. Last they did that, they came back with Secret of Evermore.

Finally beat Front Mission 4. There's no real ending, as far as I can tell. Just a few little scenes showing us what they're up to, and the credits roll with FMV of Wanzer battles going on in the background. The game was good enough, though, that I won't hold it against it. I really, really liked controlling the Durandal in favor of the Venezuelan group. For the last few Durandal missions, I had them all tricked out. It's letting me load the saved game where I beat it, and it's started me off at the beginning again (tutorials and everything). We'll have to see if this is a "New Game+" or what.

Okay, looks like I have all the money and EP I earned throughout the game, but not the parts or skills. Fair enough... but I'm going to take it back to Blockbuster and get something new. I also have to go to class in forty-five minutes, so I'll just leave now and do that on the way.

Also watched You Got Served. It's... interesting, even if the ending is horribly predictable and clichèd as all hell.

Fun Times, pt 2

So I got to Blazer Tag ready for another night of hard DDR. I brought my backpack in this time - three liters of water, a towel, phone, keys, money, change of clothes (for when I went back to Katie & Rose's), my Care Bear, and my GBA (which I've almost never used). Went in, and there were four people - Tess and three other girls. I went over to the chair by the Deer Hunter game and sat down and watched. Tess came over and we talked a little bit. I told her I remembered her, and she looked happy about that (odd). We talked for a bit, and she asked me how old I was.

"21. You?"

"14. Well, almost. I'll be 14 in a few days - <Some band name> is going to play here in a few days, on my birthday."

It was funny, to say the least. The really cool part was that she definitely looked dissapointed with my age, as I'm sure I did with hers. A lot of people have asked me how I didn't know she was that young. (I feel look like I could be doing a VH1 special right now). I knew she was younger than me, but I thought she was about 18 or so - as i'm sure she thought I was (Heather told me I look about 17). Again, pretty funny. I've caught some flak from this at work. But it gets better.

So there were three others there Friday, significantly fewer than the time previously. At one point or another, they all came up to me (I was sitting at the same large table as they were, which was the closest to the DDR machine) and asked me my names. They were Jenny, Robyn, and Elvis (a nickname, didn't ask the background on that one yet). They're all about Tess's age, give or take. I ended up talking to all of them throughout the course of the evening, Elvis more than the other two. We even played two or so games together. At one point, Jenny sat down across the table and said, "You're really kick-ass at DDR." Robyn was the ditzier one that lost her cell phone, borrowed mine to call it (it was in her pocket), then later called me back because she had a missed call from an unrecognized number.

All in all, it was a good time. Tess left about halfway through, and I hung out mostly with Elvis, and to a lesser extent, Jenny. It was really weird - they seemed to accept me as part of their group right away with no hesitation or questioning. When Jenny and Elvis went to leave, they both came up and gave me big hugs, despite the fact that we were all (me especially) very sweaty. I haven't really met that many new people since leaving high school, so it feels really, really good, even if they are all way to young to ever consider hooking up with.

I'm definitely going back up Friday, since I'm scheduled Friday day/Saturday night again. It'll be another chance to crsah with Rose :)

Oh, so back to the story. Left Blazer Tag about ten minutes after Jenny and Elvis did - 12 or so at this point. Went to Le Fun, and played a few more games, nothing groundbreaking. My feet were really hurting at this point.

Went back to my truck. There was a couple standing together right outside their car, talking very softly, and kissing, as I got into my truck and left. Kinda odd. Drove back to Rose & Katie's (I have a key to there nwo), changed, climbed into Rose's bed, and crashed. Rose got home from work and climbed into bed too, woke me up. I had a weird dream about us making out and what-not. At first, I wasn't sure if it was a dream or not. We talked some as well, I told her about Tess, and I left. Katie was downstairs lying in a blanket with James, so I guess they worked out their problems. I left and went to the Cameron Rd Sonic to see Heather and Steve.

Heather's lost some weight, but she's still cute as hell. It was good to see her again, but apparently, she doesn't want people she knows stopping by there (there's an explanation about it on her blog. Also talked to Steve for a bit.

Came home, went to work, and worked again today.

Fun times

Work yesterday sucked. I was incredibly tired. Wednesday night, I ended up going to Jarrod's for some six player Halo. That was actually a lot of fun. I don't like FPS's, but I do like Halo, especially with more players. I did okay, but constantly ranked in the bottom three, with only a few exceptions. Overall, a good time.

After that, Steve/Drew, Jarrod and I went to IHOP for an early morning breakfast. I returned home and hooked the router back up (we had used to connect the X-Box's) and re-networked our computers. Mom came home (she had spent the night at Jerry's), and I fell asleep about seven. I woke up about 7:45, since I had to be to work at 8. I worked 8 - 3, which was a weird shift to have on a Thursday, since the truck wasn't coming in or anything. Dora didn't come in, so we were kinda short one fountain, although Javi did come in for a while. Rudy showed up about 2, and I was supposed to get off at 3. They were hesitant about letting me go, since it was very busy, but I left. Took a four hour nap, and was restless. Stayed up all night Thursday, then went in to work Friday at noon. I watched the Patriot and Bring It On prior to heading in.

We were extremely busy Friday. Thankfully, Dave left by 1:30, and we had at it. The 5 o'clock crew was to consist of: Danielle, Katie, Javi, Rudy, Pedro, and Jimmy. Seriously. Needless to say, it was immensely busy at 5 - we got slammed majorly. I stayed around to help, not wanting to abandon them in the middle of a rush like that. Larry, who was supposed to be in at 6, called and let us know he wasn't going to be in 'til 7. I ended up staying until 6:50, just in time to see the reinforcements - David and Scott - pull up. Hughes came in about 6, and helped us re-establish control over the situation.

I got home and was dead tired. So naturally, I got ready to go to Austin for some DDR and to see Katie and Rose. As usual, I didn't leave until eight or so, and got there around 9. Rose called as I was exiting 35 at Riverside, and asked if I was still coming. I played it off - "Probably, although I'm kinda tired. I'll be leaving in a little while."

I showed up at her door five minutes later, and she had suspected that I was already en route. Katie answered the door, and she seemed somewhat.. downtrodden. I would later find out that she was having relationship issues, although Rose thought surely she'd have them first, especially given the nature of her and Michael. James came back over, and they started talking in Katie's room. I ended up taking Rose to work, which was fine - it's on the way anyway. I dropped her off, and headed to Blazer Tag to play some DDR. I wasn't sure why I headed to Blazer Tag as opposed to Le Fun, but went with it.

I'll have to continue the tale later, because I have to leave for work in about ten minutes.

Pictures from a couple things - D&D, Helping Rose and Katie move, and work

We all bought some Giants of Legend minis.  These are some of the giant ones, (from left to right): Don't know, Formian, Treant, Bulette, King Someone or other, and a Nightshade.	The party was attacked by a group of wolves, two of which turned out to be werewolves.  Lorm would later contract Lycanthropy from one of them, and willingly accept the transformation.
Be very quiet... I'm hunting humans.	No idea.
Michael and Luke.  Again.	None here either.  I need to start posting these while they're still fresh in my head.
Rose's house, as we're getting ready to move.	Her chair, drafting table, and dinner table.
Rose loves her blanket.  Seriously though, it is very comfortable.	Chelsea's all loaded up and ready to go.
From another angle.	And another.  That green duffle bag is full of... fabric.  'Cause that's what you need when you're moving into a new home, on the first night - fabric.
Ray being a manager.	Becky (right) and Jenn (left).
Kenny.	Becky.  She has dimples.
Jenn.	Jenn, part two.
Becky, part two.	I hate you, Joel.
Mark.  Don't care for him either.	Mom and Jerry chopped off a bunch of branches from the trees outside our house.  Looks like a big fort, especially with the flag for July 4th.
Another angle.	And another.

Heh, new features

They finally added some new features.  That's... nice, I guess.  Nothing too revolutionary or ground-breaking, just little buttons you can press to have it automatically bold, italicize, underline, blockquote, and some other stuff. 
 
(But I'm having some issues with the keyboard shortcuts - I was trying to do some cut/pasting, and somehow managed to erase almost my entire post that I had written, everything after the italicized word "italicize" above).  So that's fun.  It does give me a chance to rewrite it and clarify things.  Which is good, because there were two separate incidents that I meant to write about, but I somehow combined them into one gigantic thing.
 
I worked Friday day and Saturday night, so I was planning on going up to Austin to play DDR Friday night.  I also talked to Rose, who was totally up on me hanging out there for a bit - even offering to let me crash there.  So I took her up on it.  While I was up there, I was going to give Rose a ride to work, since Katie was going to Enchanted Rock with her NEW BOYFRIEND, James "Bluebird" Bluebird.  More on that later, though.
 
So we got back to Rose's, and hung out there for a bit.  I mostly layed on the floor, 'cause I was *really* tired.  A few hours of that, and it was time for Rose to go to work.  I gave her a ride since I was there, then went to Blazer Tag to play DDR.  It was Friday night, and there was like seven or eight people there just playing as well.  Definitely different from Le Fun.  There was one key similiarity - I stuck out like, well, something that really, really sticks out.  All the people there were like a big group of friends.  So that was fun.  But I went in and, well, went for it, I guess.  Put my quarter on the thing, and when they were done, i went up to play doubles, and started grabbing my tokens.  Some girl came up and asked if she could lay too.  I was like, "I was gonna play doubles, but sure."
 
"I'm Tess."
 
We played.  I think I'm better than her, except for one key area - stamina.  But I'm working on it.  Stayed there for about two hours, 'til they closed at midnight.  Talked to her again at one point, asking her how long they normally waited if they were up but there was a quarter up there.
 
"We don't."
 
So that was fun.
 
After that, I went and played at Le Fun, but only a few games, since I was already dog tired.  Went back to Rose and Katie's place.  I played a litle FM4 (having dragged my PS2 up there as well, for whatever reason), and eventually fell asleep in the chair.  Rose got home around six or so; I was past gone.  I woke up 'bout 10, and climbed up to her room and crashed at the foot of her bed for a while, then woke up again, and she was a little awake, and I climbed into bed with her.  Not intimate in any way - as Rudy puts it, "[I'm] a good big sister."  Slept a little more, then went home.
 
I ended up going back up there Sunday night.  That's when stuff got fun.  Gave Rose and Michael a ride back to Austin when I went up there, since they were in town.  Got back to their place; went in, there were like 5 people (3 guys, 2 girls) hanging out in the living room, as well as Katie and Bluebird sitting in the two chairs.  Then I was treated to something fun - Katie got up and sat in Bluebird's chait.  He of course, was still occupying his chair.  Then she embraced him.  I mean, I wish them well, and i believe he's a good guy, because I have faith in her abilities and judgment.  That doesn't mean it was a good sight, though.  They eventually left, and it was just me and the girls.  So I left to go play DDR at Le Fun. 
 
I played hard. 

Status Report: Misc

School: School is going okay. My speech professor needs to get over himself. At least, until he's smarter than his students. Which probably won't happen. First test is Wednesday. Have to give an informative speech the week after that. I'm not sure about my topic - DDR? MST3K? Bad movies? I'll think of something. I sent in my loan information and have to send in a confirmation for attendance. Haven't signed up for orientation yet; I plan on doing that tomorrow night. So that's fun.

Work: Dave's back. Haven't worked with him again yet, but I get to tomorrow morning 10 - 5 (F). Not only that, but Mark is the subsequent manager. So that's fun. We still haven't had the audit, and I don't know how we're going to do on this one. I guess I've sort of made up with Ruben, but Joel, no way. He was way out of line. I actually started writing this last night, but have gone to work and come home and resumed writing.

More later.

Damn

I really, really don't like Drew Barrymore. Along with some other notable names - Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Ben Affleck, etc.

But I just finished watching Ever After - I obtained it on my own accord, but Heather highly recommended it.

It's pretty good. I like the bizarre anachronisms and misplaced historical references.

Signs

I finally obtained and watched Signs (again). I saw it when it came out in theaters, and loved it. It is a *great* movie - it creates an incredible atmosphere and uses superb dramatic elements. We were literally jumping at every noise, and were freaking out. I don't know how much effectiveness was lost by showing the alien in the final scenes, but I don't really feel like exploring how he could have pulled off what was necessary otherwise. I was really creeped out.

It's been a long day

A very, very long day.

First off, I got my truck back today. Three hundred and fifty-five dollars.

Yeah.

Not only that, but apparently, running at a high temperature can cause massive internal damage (duh), and it might die (completely) sometime - if so, probably in the next two weeks.

So that's fun. I'll be driving it to Austin tomorrow to see how it handles that. On the good (?) side, the possibility is fairly minute, since I didn't drive it hot for very long, and Randy didn't see any obvious damage.

Second, I've finally accepted that things aren't going to work with Katie, at all. However, I really do follow my heart, not the other way around, which means I still have deep feelings with her, and it's going to take me a while to get over her. The disparity between my heart and head hurts too.

(Side note: I talked to Rose a little bit ago, and her and Bluebird are going to Enchanted Rock tomorrow, probably spending the night there. Awesome.)

Krista was trying to get on me for never saying anything to her, for not giving it a chance. i came back with something good though - "Have you ever eaten dog shit?" "Um, no." "Why not?" "Because it tastes bad." "How do you know, if you've never eaten it?" For whatever reason, she really, really liked that.

Whatever.

Third, work was an absolute hell. I worked 12 - 10 (by choice; I needed some extra hours, so I picked up Katie's 5 - 10 fountain shift) and had to deal with Joel for like eight of those hours. At one point, I was on number one making burgers, and he was bagging, and he starts going off on how I'm worth less than dog shit, how trained monkeys would be better than me, and how I'm stupid and not intelligent and what-not. Now, I've been teased my whole life. Especially in sixth and seventh grade, when it involved Chelsea. That hurt. I still cry about it. They knew exactly how to hurt me. Comparitively, this doesn't bother me at all. Well, most of the time, it doesn't. But when you pile on top of a bunch of other stuff, it starts to get to you.

And finally, one bright spot: Carrie really, really likes me. I mean, really likes me. And given the oppurtunity, I'd definitely pursue a relationship with her.

Except she lives in KENTUCKY.

Katie, finalè

Just got off the phone with Rose, talked about what's been going on in our respective lives. It was an interesting conversation. Rose would spend ten to fifteen minutes talking about some happening with Robert - her new beau from work - or Wes, their neighbor, who likes Katie, or Bluebird (his last name, I forgot his first name) that likes Katie, that Katie likes - fun stuff - and the cooks at work, etc, etc. And my only response would be something like, "Yeah, I saw Spiderman 2 today." Or "Yeah, my truck's in the shop for a cracked radiator." Or "I talked to a friend earlier." How depressing. I mean, I'm really happy that she's moved out, on her own, in the real world. It's a great experience; she sounds like she's having a great time, and I hope it goes well for both her and Katie (who there'll be more to discuss later). It's still frustrating, though.

And with Katie...

I really, really need to accept that it was another meaningless crush. Although when I say meaningless, I don't meaningless to me. I mean to the world at large. She never knew, and probably never will (unless I get drunk one night while I'm over there), and those who I did tell, well, I think they just listen to and put up with me out of kindness. That's the only reason that comes to my mind when I ponder such a situation.

Carrie's Back, and Spider-Man 2 is awesome. And my speech professor is... okay, but not terribly intelligent.

Possible spoilers, I don't know yet.

So Carrie's finally back from NY. That's cool - Carrie's *so* awesome, like a bear. We met at the arcade the second time I went to go see Terri; didn't really talk that much while I was there, but I got her AIM sn, and we started talking when I got back. And we've talked a *lot*. We just kind of clicked. I mean, if we had been in the same area, and had this great connection, there's no doubt we would eventually hooked up. I mean, we just... I don't know. It's hard to explain.

But it's good to hear from her again. She's been gone like all summer, and it's been lonely without her or Rose to talk to online.

Except:

Heather and I have been talking online again. Which is weird - I had almost, almost written her off. In fact, I know her number isn't in my cell anymore, and she was off my buddy list for a while (spring cleaning). But we've more or less picked up right where we left off - well, sort of. I think basically just ignoring the, um, well, you see:

mrbinkyjackalope: :( Heather: ? mrbinkyjackalope: i trusted you mrbinkyjackalope: i liked you Heather: and? Heather: something has changed? mrbinkyjackalope: you fowareded me something mrbinkyjackalope: *fowarded Heather: hahaha mrbinkyjackalope: well, it almost makes it easy to get over you mrbinkyjackalope: well, it would, if i possessed whatever part it is that allows you just move on Heather: you do mrbinkyjackalope: hahahahahahhaahahahahaaha mrbinkyjackalope: i still like you mrbinkyjackalope: i mean like Heather: Im sorry mrbinkyjackalope: when there's really no reason to, as it's abudnantly clear we're always going to be just friends - and don't get me wrong, i'm not dissing that in the slightest - i love it

Don't ask why. I don't understand it myself. This was from October sixth, 2003.

Wait a second... That must have been like, a couple days before I met Suzie. Or she found me. Or whatever.

Weirdness.

Anyway....

So yeah, Spiderman 2 is really, really cool. Jarrod didn't like it, but he's an idiot. Not really. I thought it was great; better than the first. The villian wasn't some super-buff guy who got dosed with strength serum or whatever; he was a flabby, middle aged guy who just happened to have four super arms wielded to his back. He does end up with MJ, which wasn't completely unforeseen, but I think he should have explored other options first, like the chocolate cake chick. She was cute. King Arthur and Anchorman come out Friday, which I am definitely and possibly going to see, respectively.

Speaking of Friday...

I'm going up to play DDR Friday after work, and I will probably crash at Katie and Rose's that night. That'll be cool - I still haven't done that since they moved, and I've only been up there once since. They both still seem to want to talk to me, which is a good thing. Rose is already kinda hooking up with this guy from (her) work, which doesn't surprise me. I don't know what Katie's been up to, but I hope to find out Friday night. I'm going to bring some flowers - not a romantic bouquet, but a house-warming, colorful array. I think it'll work well.

My truck's back in the shop; this time, for a cracked radiator. Which, despite how bad it sounds, isn't that bad at all. I should have it back sometime tomorrow, ready and raring to go.

I'm enjoying my speech class, although the instructor is annoying me as he incessantly repeats himself. But I find that happening in most classes I've taken, which is just a function of my personality.

Something I Just Realized

This is something for all the "silver lining on every cloud" type people. I'm not one of those people, but I can still recognize good things in bad situations.

I was supposed to go hang out with Katie Sunday night into Monday morning, because I had Monday morning off. If Mark had called while I was in Austin, and I left there, drove all the way to San Marcos, and then found out he was an idiot...

Hoo-boy.

I Wonder as I Wander

I realized something today. There's a handful of items I need to pick up from Wal-Mart. But I've just letting them build up. It's not a financial thing - I've received a series of nice paychecks, and my financial aid is set up for this year. It's not a time thing - I've had a number of free days with nothing terribly important to do. It's just... I'm so used to going to Wal-Mart occassionally with Rose after work, sometime between two and five, that I subconsciously have been thinking, "Oh, I'll just go pick that up next time Rose and I are at Wal-Mart."

But there won't be a "Next time."

I've lost her

Went to speech class for the first time today. Technically, that's not true. I had to go to Speech Class in Kindergarten - I had a speech impediment due to my delayed acquisition of language skills (four years old). But I went to my first day of Intro to Speech Comm today. It went okay. I have to give two speeches - one informative, one persuasive. Nothing terribly hard, but I'm not terribly fond of public speaking. But it looks promising, which is good after the Philosophy disappointment.

I've lost Katie. There's no doubt about it. It's the same thing that plagues a lot of relationships that become long distance - of course, it's a little odd to be using this model to describe this scenario, since the relationship in question is only a friendship, which I haven't lost.

But bear with me, because you know what I mean, and I know you know, and so forth.

She's moved to a new place in a new town, and her time is full of new experiences and new people. I've nothing really to offer her. It just wouldn't make sense for us to hook up.

That doesn't mean I can just let her go, though. Knowing something in my mind and accepting it in my heart are, of course, two totally different things.

Maybe I'll tell her now, just for the hell of it.

It hurts.

I hate Mark

So I got my schedule for this week last night.

Off Monday and Wednesday; Tuesday and Saturday night; Thursday, Friday, and Sunday day.

I was up 'til six or seven fixing Aunt Ann's computer, and I could have used another few hours. She came by to pick it up, and I was woken up (this was probably about eight or eight thirty).

So about 10:45, my cell phone rings. I answer it, somewhat unintelligebly, noting that it's Sonic calling. The voice asks if it's me (because I'm somewhat groggy at this point), then informs me that I was supposed to be in at 10 am.

No way.

Way.

I told them I'd be there in a bit. I put my work clothes on and was out the door in under three minutes. I got there, and what did Mark say? "I'm sorry, Will. I thought you heard me."

I didn't have to come in today. The bastard was looking at LAST WEEK'S SCHEDULE.

Sometimes....

So I went and played DDR last night. It felt good - my feet hurt from the plastic pads. I haven't played long enough to get foot pain in a while. I had quite a sweat going as well. There were quite a bunch of new(er) people there as well, which made me feel pretty good - without growth, any organism soon dies. There was also another oddity - a guy playing doubles barefoot. Holy crap!! He was playing on the fifth mix machine; didn't seem too intent - two songs on standard, just kind of messing around, spinning and what-not. For his third song, he did Can't Stop Falling in Love (Speed Mix), and max-combo'ed it, with a hefty number of Perfects. Damn. I mean, I've max combo'ed it as well, but I gather this wasn't his first time or anything like that. That's probably the first time I've seen someone else better than me at doubles in person. Came home, only to find that Aunt Ann had left her laptop here for me to fix, by Monday morning if at all possible. Except I had to work Sunday, which meant the only real time I could do it was Sunday night, when I was supposed to be in Austin, watching movies all night with Katie.

ARGH.

I called Katie before heading into work today to let her know what's up. Haven't heard back from her, which is nothing new - she's called me, um, twice I think. I should just tell her and get it over with.

But I won't. We all know that.

One Day

One day, I'll grow to accept the realities of the situation, and drop the childish belief that I can change them. One day, I'll learn to stop wearing my heart on my sleeve, and not to offer it so openly and easily to others, only to have it ground to bits and returned. One day, I'll realize that dreams don't come true.

Unfortunately, that day isn't today.

And it hurts.

YE-YEAH!!!!

So I called her. We're gonna watch movies at her place tomorrow night.

Go me.

Man, that's funny

So Rose called last night (it was actually at 12:45 am this morning, but I've slept for more than four hours between then and now, so it's last night), and we talked. She complained that we hadn't talked in a while, and that her and Katie wanted to talk to me more often. And here I am, getting all insecure about my relationships with the two of them. That's kinda funny. I mean, it doesn't really have anything to do with me liking Katie, other than to let me know that she does, in fact, enjoy my company and talking to me. That's *really* good to know. I might head up there tonight after work, and see if she'd like to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with me - I don't know if it's out on video/dvd yet; however, they don't have a VCR. Rose, though, pointed something out - I have a PS2, and those are fairly portable. Which is right - I can just take it up there. And I think I will. If I do. I still don't know what I'm going to do about liking her, though. We'll have to see how that works. She did tell Rose that she prefers sitting, drinking, and listening to music over going to a club and dancing, which is good. I still don't know what to do.

Had a dream about Mindy last night. It was... weird. There was a knock on the door; I answered it, and she was just standing there, like nothing was weird. I stepped foward, shut the door, and we just started making out. Hard and passionately. It was... disturbing, to say the least. I certainly have no desire to even see her again, much less rekindle any aspect of our past relationship.

ACC sent me a check for seventy dollars. Under description, it just says "june mileage." Odd.

Deep cleaned my room last night - the only thing I didn't do was clean behind my dresser, desk, and tiny bookshelf/desk thing. It's nice to have a clean room again. It'll last a while, I think.

I've been avoiding the guys lately. Not because I don't want to hang out with them, nor because I don't want to play D&D. It's just... I've been in a phase lately, where I really, *really* don't want to be around groups of people. That's why I didn't go to Greg's birthday party as well. I sorta know why, but it still gets to me. No telling how long it'll take for me to get over it this time. So that's fun.

Gotta go to work in two hours or so. It's Fourth of July weekend, so we're going to be ass busy. What fun.